In expressing an opinion that these people have no means of passing the water, it must be understood to be a deduction from our having met with no canoe, or the remains of any about the port; nor with any tree in the woods from which a sufficient size of bark had been taken to make one.  Upon Boston Island, however, there were abundant marks of fire; but they had the appearance, as at Thistle’s Island, of having been caused by some conflagration of the woods several years before, rather than of being the small fire-places of the natives.

There are kangaroos on the main land but none were caught; our efforts, both in hunting and fishing, were indeed very confined, and almost wholly unsuccessful.  What has been said of the neck of land between the head of the port and Sleaford Mere may be taken as a description of the country in general; it is rocky and barren, but has a sufficient covering of grass, bushes, and small trees not to look desolate.  The basis stone is granitic, with a super-stratum of calcareous rock, generally in loose pieces; but in some parts, as at Boston Island, the granite is found at the surface or immediately under the soil.  Behind the beach, near our watering pits, the calcareous stone was so imperfectly formed that small shells and bits of coral might be picked out of it.  This fact, with the saltness of Sleaford Mere and of a small lake on the south side of the port, accords with the coral found upon Bald Head and various other indications before mentioned to show that this part, at least, of Terra Australis cannot have emerged very many centuries from the sea, the salt imbibed by the rocks having not yet been all washed away by the rains.  In the mountains behind Port Jackson, on the East Coast, at a vastly superior elevation, salt is formed in some places by the exhalation of the water which drips from the grit-stone cliffs.

Port Lincoln is certainly a fine harbour; and it is much to be regretted that it possesses no constant run of fresh water, unless it should be in Spalding Cove, which we did not examine.  Our pits at the head of the port will, however, supply ships at all times; and though discoloured by whitish clay, the water has no pernicious quality, nor is it ill tasted.  This and wood, which was easily procured, were all that we found of use to ships; and for the establishment of a colony, which the excellence of the port might seem to invite, the little fertility of the soil offers no inducement.  The wood consists principally of the eucalyptus and casuarina.

Of the climate we had no reason to speak but in praise; nor were we incommoded by noxious insects.  The range of the thermometer on board the ship was from 66 deg. to 78 deg. and that of the barometer from 29.4 to 30.20 inches.  The weather was generally clouded, the winds light, coming from the eastward in the mornings and southward after noon.  On shore the average height of the thermometer at noon was 76 deg..